Cops: DC Jogger Killed in 'Random Attack'

(Newser)
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Police in Washington, DC, are hunting a man believed to have stabbed a woman to death in an apparently random attack. Police say 35-year-old Wendy Karina Martinez was jogging near her home in northwest DC around 8pm Tuesday night when she was fatally stabbed by a man in a mustard-colored shirt, People reports. She managed to get to a nearby Chinese restaurant where she collapsed, bleeding from a wound to the neck. Patrons were unable to save Martinez, who was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. Martinez, chief of staff at government affairs company FiscalNote, was an avid runner who regularly spent her evenings jogging around the city.

DC Chief of Police Peter Newsham described the neighborhood as "very safe" and told reporters the killing "is more likely a random act than anything else but we’re going to look at all possibilities." He said police have recovered what they believe is the murder weapon. In a statement, her family described her as "a devout Christian, a wonderful friend, and a driven professional" who got engaged just a week ago, Fox 5 reports. "We were planning a wedding, and now we have to plan a funeral," a relative in Greenacres, Fla., where Martinez grew up, tells WPTV. Police have released surveillance video of the suspected attacker. (Read more Washington, DC stories.)